RNZAF Station Te Pirita was a World War II airfield, located south of the inland mid-Canterbury town of Hororata in New Zealand.
Hurriedly built in 1941–42 after the Imperial Japanese Navy's sudden attack on Pearl Harbor, Te Pirita was, at the time of its construction, New Zealand's largest airfield.
The runway surfaces were laid with wattle tree seeds for strength while the base was designed to handle large numbers of US Boeing Flying Fortress and Consolidated Liberator bombers.
As the tide of the Pacific War turned in 1943 due to Allied victories at Guadalcanal and Papua New Guinea, the airfield was no longer required and construction of revetments, hangars and barrack blocks was halted.
[citation needed] The airbase's aviation fuel bunker was the largest in New Zealand and was located at Bankside, beside the north bank of the Rakaia River next to the Main South Line Railway.